Today in the news: 'Cannibal cop' convicted

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Pontiac Daily Leader - Pontiac, IL

Writer

Posted Mar. 12, 2013 at 5:00 PM

Posted Mar. 12, 2013 at 5:00 PM

News to know

A New York City police officer charged with plotting to abduct, cook and eat women was found guilty, Reuters reports. Gilberto Valle was found guilty of conspiracy to kidnap and a lesser charge of improperly accessing a law enforcement database to gather information on his potential victims, one of whom was his now-estranged wife.

Valle will be sentenced on June 19 and could face life in prison for the kidnapping charge. Authorities began investigating Valle after his wife found plans of how he planned to torture and kill her on his laptop. She alerted the police and then fled to Nevada with the couple's daughter. Authorities then found evidence that Valle had visited cannibalism-fetish sites, researched how to make chloroform, and had discussed ways to kidnap women with other visitors to the sites.

Quote of note

"We have characterized a very ancient, but strangely new 'gray Mars' where conditions once were favorable for life," - John Grotzinger, Mars Science Laboratory project scientist at the California Institute of Technology. Scientists held a press conference today to announce the results of the Curiosity rover's analysis of a martian rock sample.